Improvement of ionospheric electron density estimation with GPSMET occultations using Abel inversion and VTEC information

Abstract

As it is known, the Abel transform has been proven to be a useful tool that offers the possibility to obtain vertical description of ionospheric electron density (among other neutral atmosphere parameters) through inversion of Global Positioning System (GPS) observations gathered by Low Earth Orbiters (LEO). This work is focused on extending the application of this technique to GPSMET data considering Vertical Total Electron Content. With this information, the horizontal variability of the electron concentration is accounted for. This approach shows how this information improves the results obtained in electron densities with respect to the traditional approach of Abel inversion that assumes spherical symmetry. Moreover, the ability of this inversion algorithm to obtain true-height profiles of electron density is contrasted with common procedures to obtain these profiles, especially the hmF2 parameter. Copyright 2003 by the American Geophysical Union.